The March of Time, 1935-1951

Considering the size of the audience, it may have been just as w.eU that the public. had been conditioned to expect a consistently prov()(;ative.,., sensatro:oaf, andi cm1r:3ge<ns· rreatme:nl!: ~ ·aunen events from this series. Even with such a reputation, the producers released an issue in January 1938 that so aroused the public, star­tled political observers, and confounded the film industry that for some time thereafter the March of Time was in danger of perma­nent censorship, even within the United States, by pressure-group boycott, government action, and film industry agreement.

The offending film ran a short 1457 feet (16 minutes). It was the first March of Time to be limited to one subject-in this respect, it set the format for most subsequent issues. Nearly forgotten by motion picture historians, it was perhaps the most controversial American film of the 1930's. It was entitled "Inside Nazi Ger­many-1938."

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THE ISSUE OF MARCH OF TIME YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE HAS CAUSED MUCH CONTROVERSY. OUR POLICY IS TO FEARLESSLY PRESENT ANY WORTHY FILM RE­LEASED BY A RECOGNIZED AMERICAN PRODUCER. WE THEREFORE PRESENT UNCENSORED AND IMPAR­

, TIALLY THE FOLLOWING SUBJECT.

~his was the announcement flashed upon the screen of the Em­~assy Theater in New York on the night of January 20, 1938, the

remiere showing of the March of Time's highly publicized new 'ssue, "Inside Nazi Germany-1938."

• The film and its release could not have been more ingeniously designed to arouse audiences and provoke controversy. It featured tihe figure, voice, and hysterical histrionics of German dictator ~dolf Hitler, a man whose motion picture representation, with or without the usual demagogic pyrotechnics, was usually taboo in

'merican motion picture houses. On the one hand, so M 0 T staffers reported, .Jewish exhibitors were not enthusiastic about g;,i.ving Hitler and his philosophy any more exposure than neces-

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The March of Time, 1935-1951

sary. At the same time, both producers and exh~,bitors were reluc­tant to introduce controversial subject matter of any sort into the entertainment context of their business.

The March of Time's new film examined the insidious Nazi program of "racial purification." It was labeled both pro-Nazi and anti-Nazi at a time when a spirit of isolationism governed the na­tional conscience and few politicians, let alone film producers, dared take a stand on the European crisis. Finally, the film was widely touted by its producers as a provocative, ultracontroversial film issue. Such press-agentry, coming as it did from a film organi-, zation with an established reputation for sensational motion pic­ture journalism, did much to make this explosive film irresistible to curious motion picture patrons.

The footage which made up the bulk of the film had been photo­graphed in Germany by Julien Bryan. Bryan did not work on salary for the March of Time, but regularly sold them stock foot­age that he had shot in various corners of the world.

During the late 1930's most American cameramen wen~

banned from Nazi Germany. Such newsreel footage as reached America from that country was made available by the German film companies, and was thoroughly censored and doctored. For most journalistic purposes, it was useless. The dream of every American cameraman was to penetrate Nazi Germany and to get out in one piece with important footage. Bryan succeeded where· nearly everyone else had failed.

He engineered his entry into Germany the previous year in the course of a conversation with a high-ranking Gestapo officer at an embassy party in Turkey. The officer had complained petulantl)'i about the unfavorable press treatment that Americans gave to German affairs. "Why can't you Americans report our programs a little more objectively?" he asked. Seizing the opportunity, Bryan suggested that American Journalists could hardly cover the Ger­man story with any kind of thoroughness when they could not even get into the country and move around freely. "Perhaps th~ General could make arrangements ... ?"

It turned out he could. Within a short period of time, Bryall! was granted permission to enter Germany and to take motion pic­

·\Wre&.t.tber.e. ::u:e adviseif.h the Jff.ar.:C.h -;o.f ·Xime~,stalfl U'f \his~~ -fu

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Inside Nazi Gennany-1938

American film producers and exhibitors hesitated to show Adolf Hitler's face on theater screens during the 1930's for fear of upsetting audiences. The March of Time flouted this taboo regularly. (Courtesy Time, Inc.)

tune and proposed to shoot footage for them. Louis agreed. He gave Bryan raw stock for photography and approximately $2000 as an advance. Bryan departed for Germany, where he remained for seven weeks and shot 20,000 feet of film. Arriving back in the United States with what he claimed was uncensored material, he advised the March of Time staff that he had secured the scoop of the century-exclusive, sensational footage of contemporary Ger­many. With great anticipation, Louis and the boys in his shop sat down and screened the film.

What they saw was disappointing. Julien's work, as always, was technically excellent and provided extensive general scenes of con­temporary German life. However, whether the Germans had cen­~ it or-not, i t 'failedin,film0St-.every-way'lo ,'rereal ~:.su:&.

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The March of Time, 1935-1951 Inside Nazi Germany-1938

stantial of a political, military, economic, or racial nature that was ·.ectify the shortcomings of Biryan(S' · ma~eriah anch to -pro.vide. the occurring._within that .country. Bryan had managed along .the way istinctlyanti-Nazi thrust he felt the subject.w.arranted. to-. take:· a few· shotsrnETews· stttfug on• die· is.0.fat~ yellow benches· ~: Jad GI'enm was assigned ~ dllect'.· tli~· prodilctim Hee found. at.· -

that were set aside for them, and of anti-] ewish grafitti painted olony of anti-Nazi German-Americans in Hoboken, New Jersey, onto shop windows around the city. Otherwise, there was nothing hose buildings, beer halls, homes, and stores were virtually in­that was politically controversial or revealing-nothing of Goeb- istinguishable from those in Germany. "Our [re-created] ex­bels's vast propaganda machine, the repressive political regime, eriors were very realistic," said Glenn. "Our studio work was the concentration camps, the anti-Jewish pogroms, or the extensive ·, one with great care, not merely to symbolize it-it looked real." military rearmament and trainfog then uncfer way. · The anti-Nazi German-Americans whom Glenn had located

It can be argued, of course, that Bryan had managed to get more vere happy to assist him in his production, and appeared appro­new footage out of Germany at that particular moment than any- ;riately costumed in a variety of scenes intended to illuminate the one else. But the footage was a disappointment nonetheless. The ; ore ominous aspects of the Third Reich that Bryan's camera had March of Time bought the film and sent Bryan on his way. Then issed. Included in these re-creations were scenes of propaganda Louis set to work, with re-creations and aggressive narration, to ctivities; scenes of military men pursuing their studies and train-

ng; a scene of an elderly German couple listening with trepida­fon to one of Hitler's radio speeches; scenes of concentration

One of Julien Bryan's authentic shots, showing German children studying · anti-Semitic posters. (Courtesy Time, Inc.) ·amps; shots of German censors examining mail; a scene of a

storm trooper collecting funds from a housewife. • ) HI

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The March of Time, 1935-1951

Authentic shot from Julien Bryan's footage showing German officer lecturin on military tactics. (Courtesy Time, Inc.)

storm trooper collecting funds from a housewife; a shot of a G man radio announcer; scenes of political prisoners, and man others. George Dangerfield, the March of Time's resourceful pro erty man, played an important role in gathering authentic fur ture and props from the homes of German-Americans in Hoboke

Tom Orchard, at that time the March of Time's producti manager, also played a small part in the film's direction. Press into service at the last minute, he was told by Louis to get a sh of Catholic nuns in jail-a pictorial comment upon the Na widespread suppression of religious activity. Orchard found so charwomen working in the 369 Lexington Avenue building put them to work as actresses for $10 each. He sent someone 0

to Eaves Costume Company, got nuns' habits in the proper s' and dressed his charwomen in them. The next problem was construct a jail. The technicians took a piece of black cardboa cut a square hole in it, pasted a few strips of black tape from film cans over the hole to represent bars, and positioned the ca

192

Inside Nazi Germany-1938

eenacted shot of a German couple listening to Nazi radio propaganda, which <\S staged by Jack Glenn with German-American citizens in Manhattan. ourtesy Jack Glenn)

. ard "wall" in front of the camera, slightly out of focus, with the 0gus nuns in the background. "And then we just sat our lady iends down on a bench in there," said Orchard. "One of them eigave a missal to read and the other had crocheting ... . We ad the shot within three or four hours." This particular re­~ation did not escape detection by sharp-eyed film reviewers, but served the purpose and made the point that Louis wanted at just

· e right place in the film. s the principal director on the film, Jack Glenn's greatest coup

as! in talking the pro-Nazi, German-American Bund leader, ritz Kuhn, into appearing in staged scenes in Kuhn's offices. e~er were Glenn's talents as an advance man, film director, and

rnalist brought more persuasively to bear than in his efforts to this American fascist leader onto film. True to his own philos-

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The March of Time, 1935-1951

ophy., Glenn-looked for one subje'Gt-on whi:ch~ ha and:'· Kuhn couJ agree~ as he sougl'it to gain the man'..s -confidence. Said. Glenn:.

He made hiinseff avaifaDie because we ooth h·ated· the recently organized CIO. I was blond and he figured I was Nordic. Took four hours to get into Fritz Kuhn's office .. . . I said, "What do you think about the labor situation in America?" He said, "Terri­ble, terrible, that God almighty CIO!" I said to myself "Ah, there's my subject." I didn' t like the CIO either. I could honestly agree with him on that. ... I never had to misrepresent anything.

By the time Glenn finished, of course, Kuhn had, without muc further prompting, collaborated in a little vignette about his and his followers' activities in the New York area. Intercut with th shots of Kuhn in his office were scenes of Kuhn addressing his fol lowers at an American pro-Nazi rally. (Interestingly, because o Glenn's proximity to Kuhn during this brief period, Glenn's nam wound up in the F.B.I. 's files long after the activities of Kuhn an his associates had been terminated following the outbreak World War II, causing Glenn some embarrassment i:i;i later years.

For all of the footage, both authentic and staged, Louis · d Rochemont gradually fashioned an emphatically anti-Nazi na tion. He and his researchers were assisted in this task by a Germa refugee recently escaped from a Nazi concentration camp wh served as consultant on the film.

Today, nearly forty years after the film's release, the scenes th the March of Time presented do not seem so startling. But in 198 the film made statements that no other commercially released m tion picture had dared, and for that matter precious few ne papers or magazines either.

The following lines are typical of the narration:

Though six years ago, six million GerII?-ans voted a communist ticket, every known radical, every known liberal today is either in hiding, in prison, or dead.

Still going on, as pitilessly, as brutally, as it did five years ago is Goebbels's persecution of the Jews ... . And on the Christian churches, Goebbels's propaganda machine is today bearing down savagely, for these-almost gone-are still offering resistance to the

194

Inside Nazi Germany-1938

, . ~ thority· To the . . ew order. The Nazi's~atetofentes,no' ~va-. au . .- . - .. --...lN . t even God stands above Hitler. g_0<:1U. au, no .

~rom· the time' the German' child' is-0'10. en:ough t<> understand any~· thing, he ceases to be an individual, and is taught that he was born

to die for the Fatherland.

G . erving notice that all territories she lost in the . . . ermany is s

World War must eventually be given back to her.

The film ended with lines provided by John Martin which be­

e favorites of many staff members.

. with one of the great war machines Nazi Germany faces her destmy . the reat war machines of . h' t . And the inevitable destmy of g l d m is 01y. b t destroy the peace of the world, its peop e, an the past has een o . . the governments of their time.

WIME MARCHES ON!

f ·me of course, before Julien Bryan It was only a matter 0 ti ' . . d he was fu-

h had done with his footage, an and out what t ey l' . 1 t'ment of Louis's work,

B eed with the po itica sen i . d ous. ryan agr t' picture journalist e-

t his reputation and career as a ~o ion the kee ing of

nt;led upon access to e~:i~ik~oa~~i~~~s :tn:n uJ:~erstandi:g with MTord. Bryan appar ld b ed in a more

fficials that the material he shot wou e u~ . rrµan o . 1 f rable fashion. The mcorporation less neutra~ or possib. YN a:~lm on the other hand, would cer­his footage mto an anti- az1 , . t Germany would be nl uarantee that his future entry m o . . ises

, yd~Like Jack Glenn, Bryan believed in ~ononng ~1s prom ~e people he interviewed and worked with:-even if they w:~ . D ble crossing your leads and contacts m the film or ne is. ou - . . B was so upset

b . 'sn't right and it isn't smart. ryan er usmess i ' f h' footage that

M h f Time's anti-Nazi treatment o is . ut the arc 0

. h M h of Time d n attorney and considered smng t e arc

engage a . , 1 In the end, how-. ·unction agamst the films re ease. .

ecrure an rnJ · n ' t feasible. he dropped the action, probably because it w.as

r, Gl . d "I wanted to sit down some 1 forty years later enn sa1 , 1 r Y . h bl d tell him about this, because 1e with Juhen overt eta e an d h ob-e~ knew where these [re-created] shots came from, an e

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The March of Time, 1935-1951

jected to their being incorporated with his· shots. Julien was going torS:ue: U&-for ·m.i&repI"esenting; hisr,Ricture&:. Wer didn' t: misllepi:esent: . anything~ He, soowed· what:-was-gefug' oro outside-amt>· we· show what was going on inside."

Just before the ·film's release the staff invited Fritz Kuhn to a private screening of the film at March of Time headquarters. Columnist Walter Winchell, a good friend of the March of Time's, also attended. Before everyone arrived, Louis had his. tech· nicians bug the projection room with a hidden microphone con· nected by cable to a recorder. Properly prepared, Louis sat his guests down and ran the picture.

Kuhn was not amused. "If Hitler sees the film, I will be ruint!" he screamed on the recording. "Ruint! Ruint!" Kuhn's hysteria was duly noted by Winchell , who reported it in his column.

An official of the German consulate in New York was also in1

vited to a private preview of the film. According to Louis, he waa white-faced with r age when he left the projection room. "De Rochemont, God-damn it," he said, "Germany's no longer a small country and you'll suffer for this!" Louis could nor have cared less.

It had been fun making the film. It would be even more fun releasing it. So great was the excitement which accompanied the 16-minute film's opening in New York that fearful municipal a thorities assigned detectives from the city's alien squad to ming! with members of the Embassy audience, while a special detail of police was placed outside the theater to regulate the crowds.

Happily, the effect of the film on the opening night audienc was less electrifying than authorities had been led to expect. Th New York Times reported on January 21:

At the first showing the only reaction of the audience was a minor burst of applause from perhaps a dozen specta tors in favor of Hitler, immediately matched by about·as much hissing. At the sec­ond showing there were a few "Heils" for Hitler and an opposing and equivalent quantity of "Pfuis." At the third showing, as the after-dinner crowd assembled, a few fists were waved between shouters of "Heil" and of "Pfui" who happened to be too close to­gether, but order was restored by giving the protagonists more remote seats. The next three showings were similar. There were no arrests .

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Inside Nazi Ger~),(-1938

. Following the- New .York premiere, pubfic inteFest! in- the- fiJm · unt ed· as:·deso;iptions 0£~ the conu·over:sial . iS:sue ap,p~ar,ed·' on. ·,e:-news pages' and. in the editorial cehunns of newspapers' and · .. ;··:.,

agazmes. . • . . 1, The film was both praised and damned by mot10n pictµre ; itics and political observers. Regardless of political leanihgs, all riters criticized the obvious dissimilarity and occasional.'~?>nflit2

, etween the. film's visual content and the narrator's c6tnments. • ajor A. G. Rudd, general manager of the Embassy Th~a,!er !rt ew York, stated (Motion Picture HenJ,ld, January 29): "Ttie filJll '

s decidedly controversial and the theatre already has rec~iV.ed any protests from those who feel it was_ unfair to one side ~r. the

ther." The publishers of Life admitted, m the January 31 edit10n:

Fact is that a majority of the scenes, showing the German popl.l· face, the youth program and the Army, are not unfavorable to Germany and a deaf movie-goer might consider the fil~ more pro­Nazi than anti-Nazi. The MARCH OF TIME, consc10us that no camera can portray all the darker aspects of Nazism, has evened he score with a vigorously pro-democratic commentary.

ecause of the dissimilarity between the visual material and the arration, politically inclined reviewers found it d~fficult to de_ter­ine the exact point of view that the March of Tim e was takmg. "Martin Proctor," allegedly a lifelong resident of Germany, wspaperman, and UF{\. Studio employee who had_ rec~ntly ~.s-~ed to the United States, labeled t~e Mar~h of !'ime issue a

aming pro-Nazi story," as quoted m Motzon Picture Herald,

:bruary 5:

How can the March of Time offer this newsreel as inside informa­tion? . . . Can anyone see from this film how Germany's anti­

itler citizens are suffering? The whole is a flaming pro-Nazi story, fever there was one. What do you really see? Youth marching, inging and working. Iron factories and other plants go~ng fuH !

b'last. Babies cared for , people fed, soldiers and brown shuts well .,. clad and well fed, marching happily, and dictators orating, and ft ~

eople cheering . ... The March of Time editor has ~one 1

~is . . it for Nazi Germany. And by order of Herr Goebbels himself, I· · •. erewith bestow upon the editor the "Clubfoot Medal," made of'•

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The March of Time, 1935-1951

holfow: tin; tO' be·w0rn with a1·s1vastil:a on a-· rihocm fesroorred' with' a blmh ..

r

On February 9 Otis. Ferguson, the New R epublic's articulate film critic, was delighted with what he felt to be the anti-Nazi position of the film.,s producers, calling it "an editorial with pie· tures, an editorial for democracy and against suppression, militant nationalism and shoving people around."

For a while I had a sneaking idea that it might be just as well not to. encourag~ anything so rickety in social theory as Luce enter­f'.nses to go m for open crusading, this being the kind of gun as likely to blow its breech out as produce a true salvo. But that is a consideration for the future, which already seems to be in the proper ha~ds . For the present it is heartening to see good young blood makmg a field-day of the creaky superstitions of the movie trade. The best reassurance in the case of Time's "Inside Nazi Ger­many, 1938" grows out of the report that around the office in the feverish days before deadline, never had hard work .. . seemed easier. Working under Louis de Rochemont . . . on the shots Julien Bryan brought bac~ from Germany, the majority of this sta seem_s to have been workmg on something it believed in. And i makmg any good thing, belief tells in the end.

D~ring the next few weeks, the clipping files of the March Tir:ie continued to swell with both supportive and condemn reviews. Political repercussions quickly followed the film's rele Throughout the nation, German consular and embassy offici as well as Bund leaders, condemned the film and denounce . producers. In Baltimore, German Consul Frederick F. Schne protested directly to the Maryland Censor Board: in Washin D.C. , it was first announced that the film would not run in R. houses. This announcement was later withdrawn. In New Ori nun:erous cuts were made in the film b"efore its release to ge audiences. And in New York, Radio City Music Hall yield first-run right to the Embassy Newsreel Theater, where tli ran for an unprecedented sixteen weeks.

In Chicago, according to the Motion Picture Herald of J 29, the Police Board of Censors found the film anti-Na banned it on grounds that "it contained material which waa

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Inside Nazi Gennany-1938

0 create ·publicill~feeling'$agai:nsranation-·friendly to· the un:i:ted tates.' " Chicaga. newsi::>apers, supported by civil rights leaders_ ~&Some· church officiafs,, charged:·the boavd· withi suppvession ·of·

eedom of speech and freedom of the press. The CI\.iCago censors bruptly reversed the order which had banned the release within hicago city limits. Chicago's Police Commissioner Allman stated:

'u he film is not censorable-1 lifted the ban." .The high point of conflicting reaction was reached a few days

ater when the Warner Brothers circuit refused to carry the film n grounds that it was pro-Nazi propaganda. Henry Luce's reply o Warner's charges was quoted in the Motion Picture Herald on

anuary 29:

Mr. Warner's assertion that the March of Time is "pro-Nazi propaganda" is ridiculous ... . Mr. Warner also says that movie audiences pay little or no attention to the sound that comes from he screen. This is an amazing observation to come from the man enerally credited with introducing the talking picture .. . . For­~ately, Mr. Warner does not control the entire motion picture

ndustry.

n refusing to show the film, Warner Brothers, which had the t to exhibit the March of Time in more than 200 theaters ss the country, forfeited its exclusive contractual rights to this

ticular issue. Competing exhibitors scrambled to book the film ran it profitably throughout the nation. ithin the film industry; the spread of opm10n was fully as t as among the critics outside. Motion picture producer David elznick sent this telegram to the producers : "Heartiest con­lations. March of Time's Inside Nazi Germany is one of the est and most important reels in the history of pictures. It is ·ng to know that at long last someone has the courage to pre­uch facts to the public in this medium and the intelligence lent to present them so dramatically." Complimentary, too, e appraisal of British documentarian Basil Wright in the 3 number of Spectator, who found the issue impartial and . " . .. it scrupulously avoi.ds the sensational aspects of the iWrote Wright, "and by an avoidance of physical horrors trates our attention on the more unpleasant perversions of

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The March of Time, 1935-1951 Inside Nazi Gexmany-193&

human souls- ·and-mim::fS,·whicfr.:ca.n he ·so. efficienrfy aal'ried' ·i· G'ermany1' as· the frrst,commellciaIIy released anti'--Nazi·Amer- · the name of a Dictator by a. monster: propaganda-machine .s ~ motion,. picture. Whatever its .political importance may ha:Ve that eir:I~l~- Gaeobefa.:,.· er "'Inside Nazi:Gemrany-1938.i• is best remembered'a5 ·a: strik~

Contrasting with both Selznick's and Wright's enthusiasi:xample of the vitality and impact of the dram~t~caff! con­publ.isher Martin Quigley's hysterical blast in his Motion Ped informational film. Among contemporary cnt1cs, it was Herald, on February 5, at the looming specter of "idea filrtish documentary producer John Grierson who most acutely American theaters: ;ed the significance of the March of Time:

The ~x~ibi tors oE the coun~y ought to- tell "The March of Ti-Jiere are proper limits; it is trne, to freedom o~ spee£h ~hid> the. that It is welcomed when It behaves itself but only then. 1.nema must regard. Its power is too great for irresponsible c~m­s~ould tell it_ .. . that th~y expect it to be mindful of the proh.ent, when circulations like March of Time's n:iay run to ~me ties of theatrical presentat10n-that they do not want controve nd theatres across an explosive world: But it seems sensible

l " . 1ousa fi Id f l po ltical material which is calculated to destroy the theatre a5>r the moment that March of Time has won the e or tie public:s esc~pe from the bitter realities, the anguishes and lementary principles of public discussion. The world, ou~ world, turmoil of life. ppears suddenly and brightly as a~ .oys~er for t.he ~pemng: for

· · · • · · l le-how strangely-worth hvmg m, fightmg m, and mak-As if m response to Qmgley s fulmmat10ns, Dorothy Thon m peop . t'll · the thought of a

N Y k H ld T 'b 1 · . ng drama about. And more important s i is ew or era n une co ummst, quoted m · the Febn . . . . h' d £ d racy at long last in contact

· f M t · p · t H ld ·d evitahzed citizens ip an o a emoc ISsue o o zon zc ure era , sa1 : f ~ith itsel .

The tempest raging around the Mari;:h of Time's film "Inside r Germany-1938" raises not only the question of screen censors but also whether a motion picture can· or should deal with imp?r~ant controversial subject. It is a highly exciting pictur :eahstic_ portrayal of Germany today, and a magnificent pieo 1ournahsm. Who on earth can doubt the right or the reason presenting such a motion picture document?

The protest, anger, and excitement provoked by "Inside Germany" gradually subsided and, in February it was replac 1

most markets by a ne~ and less controversial issue. Nearly passed before the closmg and perhaps most important corn about ~his ~ontr?versial film was made. Speaking in January by which tn:ne it had b~en widely seen throughout Europ ' South Am~nca, Adol~ Bitler attacked anti-Nazi films planne produced m the Umted States, and cautioned the films' that if production continued, Germany would answer them anti-Semitic films, which the dictator felt sure "many cou will appreciate" (New York Times, January 31, 1939).

Historians looking back, with memories of events leading the Second World War to guide them, can today view "

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